Today saw the season début of the ever-popular Jimmy White, but his stay in the 2012 Wuxi Classic proved to be short-lived as he suffered a 5-1 defeat at the hands of India’s Aditya Mehta today.

Having previously seen off both Sam Baird and Thailand’s James Wattana to reach this stage and today continued his run to reach the last 48 of a full-ranking event for the first time since last season’s Shanghai Masters. Last season it was notable that Aditya was often the victim of particularly tough draws, generally losing only to players ranked significantly higher than himself and this year I expect him to cause a surprise or two in the qualifying rounds. Next up for him will be a clash with Jamie Cope for a place at the venue.

Another player who I expect to threaten the venues this season is Michael White and the talented young Welshman moved to within just one match of Wuxi City with a 5-1 win against China’s Xiao Guodong today. Standing in his way though will be Anthony Hamilton, a repeat of their 2011 World Championship qualifier which comfortably went the way of the Nottingham man.

Beginning his third season on the main tour today was Jack Lisowski and after a difficult campaign last time out, he played well today to record a 5-1 victory against Tony Drago to set up a final round match with Ken Doherty. also through in the morning session were Matt Selt, Rory McLeod and Jimmy Robertson, while Luca Brecel’s latest run was brought to an end in a decider by Scotland’s Jamie Burnett.

The afternoon session meanwhile saw success for a number of experienced players as Rod Lawler, Dave Harold and Barry Pinches all progressed, at the expense of Liang Wenbo, Alfie Burden and Alan McManus respectively. With three wins already this week, Rod appears to be benefiting from his recent involvement at the Q School which has seen him play so much snooker during the past few weeks, while it is good to see Barry back to winning ways after what was for him a disastrous 2011/12 season which barely saw him retain his main tour status. Alfie Burden meanwhile has since said on Twitter that he was pleased to be able to compete, having suffered from viral meningitis in recent times.

Later in the day, Steve Davis joined Jimmy White in exiting the tournament as after a bright start, he lost out 5-3 against Norway’s Kurt Maflin, while Robert Milkins held off a brave fightback from Liu Chuang to come through a dramatic deciding frame.

Passakorn Suwannawat meanwhile was a surprise 5-1 winner against Leicester’s Ben Woollaston, while Peter Lines needed less than two hours to oust Redcar’s Mike Dunn by the same scoreline.

The most drama however was reserved for the match between David Gilbert and Anthony McGill, which at the time of writing stands level at 4-4, McGill having taken four frames in a row including the eighth frame on the pink to keep the match alive…

What a shame Steve played a mixed bag first game up. This is the type of game he must win throughout the season to stay in the top 48. Played 2 good frames and had in effect a century break but miscued to gift frame 1 when he should have been 3-0 up. And then countless chances came and went before Maflin inevitably took the hint at 3-3 that he should take the pts and claim the win. SD will be disappointed he missed so many balls from frame 4!